Paragraph 175

Germany, United States, United Kingdom

2000

81 Min

Color, Black and White

1.33:1

English, French, German

Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
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DIR Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman

PROD Janet Cole, Michael Ehrenzweig, Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman, John Hoffman

CAST Rupert Everett, Klaus Müller, Karl Gorath, Pierre Seel, Heinz F., Annette Eick, Albrecht Becker, Gad Beck, Heinz Dörmer

MUSIC Tibor Szemzö

Sundance (Documentary Competition): Directing Award, Berlinale (Panorama): FIPRESCI Prize, Teddy Award: Best Documentary, Toronto (Real to Reel), Queer Lisboa, Berlinale (Teddy Twenty Tribute)

Synopsis

By the 1920’s, Berlin had become known as a homosexual eden, where gay men and lesbians lived relatively open lives amidst an exciting subculture of artists and intellectuals. With the coming to power of the Nazis, all this changed. Between 1933 and 1945 100,000 men were arrested for homosexuality under Paragraph 175, the sodomy provision of the German penal code dating back to 1871. Some were imprisoned, others were sent to concentration camps. Of the latter, only about 4,000 survived. Today, fewer than ten of these men are known to be living. Five of them have now come forward to tell their stories for the first time in this powerful new film. The Nazi persecution of homosexuals may be the last untold story of the Third Reich. Paragraph 175 fills a crucial gap in the historical record, and reveals the lasting consequences of this hidden chapter of 20th century history, as told through personal stories of men and women who lived through it: the half Jewish gay resistance fighter who spent the war helping refugees in Berlin; the Jewish lesbian who escaped to England with the help of a woman she had a crush on; the German Christian photographer who was arrested and imprisoned for homosexuality, then joined the army on his release because he “wanted to be with men”; the French Alsatian teenager who watched as his lover was tortured and murdered in the camps. These are stories of survivors — sometimes bitter, but just as often filled with irony and humor; tortured by their memories, yet infused with a powerful will to endure. Their moving testimonies, rendered with evocative images of their lives and times, tell a haunting, compelling story of human resilience in the face of unspeakable cruelty. Intimate in its portrayals, sweeping in its implications, Paragraph 175 raises provocative questions about memory, history, and identity. —IMDb

Director

Rob Epstein

Rob Epstein, also credited as Robert P. Epstein, is a director, producer, writer and editor. Epstein has won two Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature for the films The Times of Harvey Milk and Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt.

In making the transition to scripted narrative, Epstein wrote, directed, and produced (with Jeffrey Friedman), the feature film Howl, starring James Franco as young Allen Ginsberg. Howl was the opening night film of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, and in the official competition at the Berlin International Film Festival. Howl won the 2010 Freedom of Expression Award from the National Board of Review.

Epstein is the recipient of numerous other awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the International Documentary Association’s Pioneer Award for his contributions to the field, as well as the Outfest Achievement Award and the Frameline Film Festival Award.

As a child, Rob Epstein had a painting studio set up in the basement… read more

Rob Epstein, also credited as Robert P. Epstein, is a director, producer, writer and editor. Epstein has won two Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature for the films The Times of Harvey Milk and Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt.

In making the transition to scripted narrative, Epstein wrote, directed, and produced (with Jeffrey Friedman), the feature film Howl, starring James Franco as young Allen Ginsberg. Howl was the opening night film of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, and in the official competition at the Berlin International Film Festival. Howl won the 2010 Freedom of Expression Award from the National Board of Review.

Epstein is the recipient of numerous other awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the International Documentary Association’s Pioneer Award for his contributions to the field, as well as the Outfest Achievement Award and the Frameline Film Festival Award.

As a child, Rob Epstein had a painting studio set up in the basement of his suburban New Jersey home, but it wasn’t until he discovered filmmaking that he found his artistic career.

Epstein began his filmmaking career at at age of 19, after taking a bus from New York City to San Francisco. Soon after arriving on the west coast, he answered a classified ad for a documentary seeking a production intern. This led Epstein to become the youngest of of six filmmakers in the Mariposa Film Group, the entity responsible for directing the landmark 1977 documentary Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives, considered to be the first feature documentary about the gay experience in America. The film played in theaters and was broadcast nationally on PBS, an unusual occurrence for a documentary at that point in time.

After Word Is Out, Epstein set out on his own to make a film about series of events occurring in San Francisco in the late 1970s which eventually became the film The Times of Harvey Milk. During the five years it took make the film, Epstein worked a series of jobs to support himself, including as a concessionaire at the Castro Theatre, and as an assistant editing on feature and documentary films. Written, directed, and co-edited by Epstein, The Times of Harvey Milk, premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in September of 1984. USA Today called the film “the hit of the festival” and from there it went on to the New York Film Festival, the Sundance Film Festival where it won a Special Jury Award, and the Berlin Film Festival. The film became an international sensation and is still in distribution through out the world.

At age 29, Epstein won an Oscar for The Times of Harvey Milk along with producer Richard Schimechen, becoming the first “out” filmmakers to do so on the Oscar broadcast. In addition to the Oscar, The Times of Harvey Milk went on to receive the New York Film Critics Award for Best Non-Fiction Feature, three Emmy Awards, and a Peabody Award.

In 2000, The Times of Harvey Milk was selected by the Sundance Institute and UCLA Film and Television Archive as a preservation project and for the first time the film was blown-up to 35mm. In 2011, the Criterion Collection released a newly digital re-master Blueray edition of The Times of Harvey Milk with numerous additional materials, including interviews with Gus Van Sant and others involved in his film Milk, which was inspired by the documentary.

In 1986, Epstein made an early AIDS documentary for PBS with Peter Adair, titled The AIDS Show, and in 1987, he was a producer/director on a public television series called We The People. This documentary TV series was the first time he worked with editor Jeffrey Friedman. Their sensibilities and creative styles clicked. In 1987, the two formed Telling Pictures, a San Francisco-based production company and set about on their first collaboration which was the HBO documentary Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, inspired by the AIDS Memorial Quilt founded by Cleve Jones. Narrated by Dustin Hoffman, Common Threads tells the dramatic story of the first decade of AIDS in America through five stories memorialized in the AIDS Quilt. Epstein won his second Academy Award for Documentary Feature with Common Threads, as well as another Peabody. Bobby McFerrin receiving an Emmy for his all-vocal original score.

Epstein and Friedman’s next film was a road-documentary titled Where Are We?, part of the documentary competition line-up at the Sundance Film Festival (1991).

In 1995, Epstein and Friedman wrote and directed The Celluloid Closet, based on Vito Russo’s landmark book of the same title. Released by Sony Pictures Classics, narrated by Lily Tomlin, the film depicts 100 years of gay and lesbian characters in Hollywood movies. The Celluloid Closet premiered at the Venice Film Festival and then went on to the Toronto International Film Festival, the Sundance Film Festival (Grand Jury Freedom of Expression Award), and the Berlin Film Festival (Teddy Award, Best Documentary). For its HBO television presentation Epstein and Friedman won Emmys for directing, as well as a Peabody.

Epstein and Friedman’s next feature documentary Paragraph 175 premiered at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival where it won the Grand Jury Prize for Directing, and at the Berlin Film Festival where it won the FIPRESCI (International Film Critics Association Award).

In preparing to segue into narrative feature directing, Rob Epstein was accepted into the American Film Institute directing internship program where he was placed as a directing intern on Martha Coolidge’s film Rambling Rose.

Epstein and Friedman were invited to be fellows at the Sundance Film Institute Writer’s Lab with their project Howl about Allen Ginsberg’s seminal 1955 poem of the same name. Howl opened the 2010 Sundance Film Festival as part of the dramatic competition. Filmed in New York in 14 days, Howl stars James Franco and features Jon Hamm, David Strathairn, Jeff Daniels, Mary-Louise Parker, Treat Williams, Alessandro Nivola, and Bob Balaban. Howl received the National Board of Review Freedom of Expression Award. It was also part of the official competition at the Berlin Film Festival.

Epstein’s films have played in festivals, theaters, television, and museums throughout the world. Career retrospectives have been held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, the Taiwan International Documentary Film Festival, and Camerimage in Poland.

Rob Epstein is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where he currently serves on the Board of Governors. He has taught in the Graduate Film Program at Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, and is currently a professor in film at California College of the Arts, in San Francisco. —Wikipedia

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Jeffrey Friedman

Jeffrey Friedman (born in Los Angeles, California on 24 August 1951) is a non-fiction filmmaker, director, producer, writer and editor. Friedman has won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for the film Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt.

Friedman has been making films with Rob Epstein since 1987, when they formed the production company Telling Pictures in San Francisco, California. Together they wrote, directed, and co-produced HOWL (2010), starring James Franco as the poet Allen Ginsberg, featuring Jon Hamm, David Strathairn, Mary-Louise Parker, Jeff Daniels, Alessandro Nivola, Treat Williams, and Bob Balaban. HOWL, which was executive produced by Gus Van Sant, premiered on opening night at the Sundance Film Festival, followed by the Berlin and London International Film Festivals. It was released theatrically and on home video by Oscilloscope Laboratories in the U.S. and internationally by The Match Factory. HOWL received a 2011 Freedom of Expression Award from… read more

Jeffrey Friedman (born in Los Angeles, California on 24 August 1951) is a non-fiction filmmaker, director, producer, writer and editor. Friedman has won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for the film Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt.

Friedman has been making films with Rob Epstein since 1987, when they formed the production company Telling Pictures in San Francisco, California. Together they wrote, directed, and co-produced HOWL (2010), starring James Franco as the poet Allen Ginsberg, featuring Jon Hamm, David Strathairn, Mary-Louise Parker, Jeff Daniels, Alessandro Nivola, Treat Williams, and Bob Balaban. HOWL, which was executive produced by Gus Van Sant, premiered on opening night at the Sundance Film Festival, followed by the Berlin and London International Film Festivals. It was released theatrically and on home video by Oscilloscope Laboratories in the U.S. and internationally by The Match Factory. HOWL received a 2011 Freedom of Expression Award from the National Board of Review.

Friedman & Epstein’s first film together was Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, inspired by the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. Narrated by Dustin Hoffman, Common Threads recounts the first decade of AIDS in America through stories of five individuals featured in the Quilt. The film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for Common Threads in 1990, as well as a Peabody Award, and an Emmy Award for Bobby McFerrin’s original all-vocal score.

Their film The Celluloid Closet, based on the book by film historian Vito Russo, depicts a 100-year history of homosexual characters in Hollywood movies. Narrated by Lily Tomlin, The Celluloid Closet had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, was featured at the Toronto, New York, and Sundance Film Festivals (at which it received the juried Freedom of Expression Award), and at numerous international festivals, including Berlin, Tokyo, and Sydney. It received a Peabody Award and a duPont-Columbia journalism award, and Friedman and Epstein won Emmy Awards for directing.

In 2000 they directed and produced Paragraph 175, a film that explores the untold history of homosexuals during the Nazi regime in Europe. Narrated by Rupert Everett, and filmed in Germany, France and Spain, Paragraph 175 had its US premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January, 2000, where it was awarded the documentary Grand Jury Prize for directing, followed by a European premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February, where it won a FIPRESCI award (Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique).

Jeffrey Friedman grew up in New York City, where his mother was an actor and his father taught undergraduate English literature and edited and published a small literary magazine. Jeffrey began studying acting when he was nine, and at age twelve he acted professionally in two off-Broadway productions. He played Emil in “Emil and the Detectives” and a schoolboy on the first day of integration in Little Rock, Arkansas in “Black Monday” by Reginald Rose.

Friedman began his film training by apprenticing in the editing rooms of such films as Marjoe (Academy Award, Documentary Feature, 1972) and William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973). Other early credits include the pole-vault segment directed by Arthur Penn and edited by Dede Allen for Visions of Eight (1973), about the 1972 Munich Olympics, and Raging Bull (Academy Award, Film Editing, 1980), edited by Thelma Schoonmaker and directed by Martin Scorcsese. —Wikipedia

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